Yes that’s what the morning vet update predicted. She said also if he has cushings I they can hold onto a lot of inflammation everywhere until it’s under control and a lot of them have a lot of fluid retention from the inflammation around their gut
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@Railbird - Does that mean he has to stay at Byrd’s farm??? If so, are the two of you safe there?
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Oh no he’s at the rehab barn. He’s staying there for a while until we get a good plan for managing his various issues and I can make sure where he heads next is well equipped. I shipped poor Ruby out and I was really not sure if she or her buddy would fall down in the trailer but anything was safer than that place.
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One of the things that will be so telling is when these horses gain weight and thrive with basic care.
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That’s why I get so angry at people insisting that the owner’s should have been checking on the horses or that the should have known the board was too cheap. 
According to the Times-Dispatch article, board ranged from $300 - $700. $300 - $500 is fair for a retired horse that isn’t geriatric, who is an easy to moderate keeper. $500 - $700 for pasture board should include soaked feed, special feed, etc., maybe even blanketing and meds.
These horses just flat weren’t being fed.
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Since Grace @Railbird has already outed herself here, I want to share with you guys the story I wrote about her involvement with this case:
Spotlight on Grace!
One volunteer who has been working tirelessly both on site and behind the scenes is Grace Maxwell of Richmond. She personally picked up two of the affected horses and moved them from the retirement farm to the veterinary hospital and then to the rehab center. She assisted with loading some of the first four horses that were picked up by their owners and she dug around on social media to find other owners and helped to coordinate shipping for their horses. She gathered needed supplies from donors all over the area and delivered them to VRSVA.
Perhaps most importantly, Grace has been documenting the conditions of each horse removed from the farm and compiled a list of other witnesses to forward any pertinent information to law enforcement for the ongoing investigation. She also met with the county Commonwealth’s Attorney and asked for his support for prosecution if warranted.
Grace has good reason for becoming an advocate for the horses in this crisis. In 2021, one of the horses belonging to a friend of Grace ended up in starvation condition at Byrd’s retirement farm. After the horse was rescued, the friend tried to expose what was happening at the farm by posting about it on Facebook, but she felt bullied by the local community supporting Byrd and was compelled to delete the story.
Grace thought that maybe the circumstances of her friend’s horse was just a one-time thing. But when she saw Loki’s story last week, she got a terrible feeling and wondered how many other horses there might be suffering the same fate.
“So I just offered my trailer to people, and my friend who had the starved horse found someone on Facebook who had posted about sending a horse there. And she asked me if I would call her, since I do cold calls for work and I’m not afraid. And that was the first person I notified about what was going on there.
“And then the first time I went to the farm I saw Ruby and I looked her in the eyes and kind of promised myself, and her, that I wouldn’t let her die there.
“On Friday (February 10) I got the call that Ruby’s owner had been found and I was setting things up to get her the next morning, but then I heard she was colicking. I just started sobbing in my living room, I thought there’s no way a horse in that shape is going to make it. I got my trailer and figured maybe I was just going to hold her head while she died. So she would have someone with her who loved her in that moment.
“But damn if I didn’t walk in the barn and she lifted her head up and pinned her ears at me like ‘You’re late!’ “
(At this moment in the conversation I am remembering and appreciating every good mare I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. #teamruby)
Grace continued, “I’m not a sob story emotional person usually. I’m usually pragmatic. But to see horses whose eyes have given up and they are lying down staring off into the distance, not to rest, but just because they are tired of living…
“When I was trying to get an appointment with the Commonwealth’s Attorney, I felt like the secretary was trying to deflect me, and that’s what I asked her. I said have you ever seen a horse so thin it just lays down to stare in the distance, because it’s too tired to stand.
“And she was like, wait, what?
“And then she really listened to my story. Before that she was saying that she wasn’t the person to hear complaints like this.
“Anyway, that’s how I got on the warpath.”
#bethechange
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But even in May, that pasture is done. If she wasn’t providing hay, no wonder he is so thin.
I don’t get it, I mean - everything has to eat. It’s not exactly rocket science.
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I was going to say I’d test for Cushings; sounds very likely. Not sure it explains the teeth but maybe in addition to other issues. Poor guy!
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I mean looking at his feet either he’s got a serious chronic abscess issue with a systemic component or the hoof care was so bad it’s no wonder he had a serious chronic abscess issue
Poor sweet boy’s teeth
General condition
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Oh my😢.
Yikes I’ve never seen teeth like that.
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Yeah you know I thought I knew a lot about horses until these last 2 weeks and it turns out there’s a whole set of facts that I had no idea about and could have gone my whole life not knowing. Like, for example, emaciated horses don’t have normal body temperatures. When you’re shipping a horse who might go down in the trailer, you should tie them long enough that they won’t be hung up. If they are thin enough for long enough they develop weird scar tissue over the major points on their body from the pressure of their bones on the dirt. Stocked up legs are to be expected when refeeding. (Why? Who knows?)
A body condition score below 2 has a 60% survival rate per this study: https://ker.com/equinews/body-condition-score-predicts-survival-rate-of-malnourished-horses/
We had 6 of those. Statistically, we will lose 2. One is already gone or will be soon. I have to wonder if our odds are better having a whole group of gifted and dedicated horse people
Working on them, or worse because most of them are seniors.
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I have never seen horse teeth like that
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Fwiw, Madden Mountain is the same price point.
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Same price point as…?
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Byrd’s place.
Just pointing out that the “gold standard” isn’t oodles of money more than the place that starved horses.
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Good point.
MM offers turnout on huge fields, hay, and really amazing run in barns, but you’re right it’s not rocket science.
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